John1122

It was a series of upper lows rotating around a large parent low to the north. It snowed for about 36 consecutive hours. 6.5 inches here, I remember it was around the first time there was a secondary deer season from just before Christmas into New Years. 

I can remember one very heavy bout on the front end, I had went down to a gas station to get gas for my 4 wheeler for hunting and it was pouring down half dollar+ sized flakes. Got about an inch in 20 minutes.  It would be very light snow, then heavy burts for the next day and a half or so.

The Johnson City event was 1-27-98. The Plateau/Highland Rim event was a week later on 2-4-98. I had 18 inches of snow, Scott County got over 24 inches and most of the area was without power. Two very similar storms.

My two most unique storms are the December 2009 event that dumped 4-8 inches of snow over most of Campbell County while mainly rain fell in every direction and a March 1997 event that dropped 5 inches on me in a very elevation driven event. There is a farm with a large barn right at the top of a steep drop here. There was 5 inches on one side of the barn and barely an inch on the other side of it. I doubt I see anything like that again in my lifetime. 

I had an uncle driving here from Texas that night and he said the snow was manageable until he got to that crest at the barn, then it was just a white out the rest of the way.

I do 90% of my fishing in rivers. Wade most of the time. This wx hobby gives me an advantage. I have learned to paint my own poppers with the fish scale pattern. I use the fly rod on the S. Fork of the Holston. Lots of big browns and rainbows. I like using a spinning rod for smallmouth.

I wade/swim all the time. These aren't bank accessible and you can't slow down enough to fish the holes properly in a boat. I use a tiny spinning reel with 4/14 spider wire. It's something to pull a 3 pound smallmouth out of 12 inches of water.

This got me to thinking about the trend of warmer winters since 1998ish. My earliest winter memories start around 1975. I decided to look back at my grandfathers low temp records for here to see how often we slipped below 5 degrees here in the winters since then.

1975: 4 Degrees December 19th

1976: -5 January 9th

1977: -10 January 19th - Also -7 January 29th with several other subzero days.

1978: -2 January 11th

1979: -10 February 10th

1980: 4 February 2nd

1981: -2 January 12th  

1982: -14 January 17th - many days below 0 with a -10 on Jan 11th

1983: -8 December 25th, -4 on December 24th.

1984:  -2 January 21st, 0 on the 20th and 22nd.

1985: -28 January 21st, -22 January 20th.

1986: -5 January 27th and 28th

1987: 2 January 27th

1988: 0 February 6th

1989: -10 December 22nd, high was 0 that day.

1990: No temps below 5.

1991: 0 February 16th

1992: 2 January 16th 

1993: 0 March 15th, blizzard was good.

1994: -14 January 19th, -10 18th, two other days below 0 in the month.

1995: -4 February 8th, -1 on the 7th. 4th-14th was very cold and snowy. Last yr for my grandpa. He died Mar 16th at 90.

1996: -20 February 5th. 15 inches of snow on the ground. Last extreme cold event (below -5 imo) in East Tennessee.

1997: 1 January 11th

1998: No temps below 5

1999: No temps below 5

2000: 5 December 22nd

2001: 2 January 3rd

2002: No temps below 5

2003: -4 January 18th (last sub zero)

2004: 2 December 20th

2005: No temps below 5.

2006: No temps below 5.

2007: No temps below 5.

2008: 4 January 20th

2009: 0 January 16th

2010: 3 December 14th

2011: 4 January 14th

2012: No temps below 5.

2013: No temps below 5.

This is the 30th anniversary of the frigid Christmas of 1983. My low was -10, my high was 6 degrees. It was an odd pattern, it would warm up and rain, change to snow showers, then be really cold. Then repeat. The entire second half of December went that way in 1983.

I am not one for lake fishing or doing much on the lakes in the area, but I love smallmouth fishing in the creeks on the Plateau, Stinking Creek and Tackett Creek here in Campbell County are surprisingly fun even with massive coal mining for years. I also love the Obed watershed in Morgan County. Clear Creek is particularly fun in the middle of summer.